July 2024 Island Trip – Day 11

It was another hot day, and then cloud cover added mugginess to the atmosphere. After getting a final load of laundry going (it is a gift to get home and NOT have to do 3 loads of laundry!) I took the push lower and worked on excavating the little trees in the garden. I was distressed to find one of the apples browned out with soil missing from around its base. Last week it looked great. After adjusting its dripper, which was sending water three feet away from the tree, I weeded around it only to discover voles have been nibbling on the apple’s trunk. Same with the other apple, which looks happy. I sacrificed two small buckets to make vole deflectors, and have forgiven myself for things like letting the grass get five feet tall around the trees, not keeping in mind that voles like to snack on young tree bark, and that gardening when only in residence 25% of the time is fraught.

After making sure the bluetooth timer at the house was operating a particular valve the way I wanted it to, in order to have the motion sensing anti-deer sprinkler work in the perennial bed 24/7, I got a lot of pre-departure prep done: Cleaning, putting tools away, packing up… Late afternoon I headed to my neighbor to the east to take her a birthday card. She was just arriving home after dental work and so declined a walk. Heading up the road I ran into my neighbor to the north, and we had a good chat in her yard. We keep in touch but don’t see each other often. She and her husband are persevering through a lot of medical struggles. She was in good form. I reminded her that they are welcome to stay with us when they have to go of Island for medical appointments. She thanked me and said her husband felt self conscious about his need to retire to lie down so often to catch his breath… I said we understood, and she said she knew we did. They don’t have a lot of financial resources, and so offering a place to stay, and community is something we can do. And, yeah, they have to feel comfortable about taking us up on the offer.

There’s been a cow lowing to the south east for hours. I don’t know anything about cow physiology, but this beast seems distressed. Like it’s been moved to a new home (new pasture?) and is lonely, or, should it be a bull, the ladies are in heat in an area he cannot burst his way into. This has been going on for about three hours and makes me wonder if cows get ‘horse’ voices! Poor beastie.

The trailer is sitting at 62º right now. A cool relief after 82º earlier today. Time to head to bed.